In the course of our research, we come across many case studies, supplier announcements and regulatory pronouncements. The most interesting among these are the disruptions – trial sponsors, trial managers, technology platforms or policy makers who are trying to shake up the status quo.
In the first of our disruption profile series, we look at goBalto. We had the opportunity to speak with Jae Chung, its visionary and enthusiastic CEO.
Philosophy
goBalto believes that until now, sponsors and CROs have had to make “do” with on premise software, which were typically traditional enterprise class systems with associated lack of agility. These solutions suffer from three shortcomings; they are expensive, they require high investment in training and installation and from the research associates’ perspective, they are hard to use. goBalto looked to other industries where such solutions are being disrupted by a new generation of software, characterized by better design, purpose built for the problem at hand and less expensive. In short, the ‘software as a service’ architecture.
goBalto saw the market for a lean startup movement, which emphasizes agile, iterative processes to build a product customers love in the clinical trial platform space. It has invested in a purpose built platform designed to make it easy for sponsors and CROs to initiate their sties through the web. Taking the best practice of software development and product release cycles pioneered by box.net, dropbox, and facebook, they are building a platform “unlike anything the clinical research industry has ever seen”.
Target
goBalto goes to market with two products; Directory and Tracker. Directory is a “linkedin” style listing which makes it easy for sponsors to find sites and CROs and for sites to find new studies. Both solutions solve different pain points and offer value depending on the problem a user faces at the time.
The service is priced on a monthly subscription basis, and is significantly less expensive than off the shelf CTMS solutions. goBalto’s approach aims at total flexibility and users can cancel at any time. The platform currently has roughly 15,000 investigative site and users provide feedback at their discretion.
Outlook
There is excitement in the camp. goBalto is gearing up to announce partnerships with a number of the leading global CROs and pharmaceutical companies. This will no doubt put traditional CTMS suppliers on watch.
The company plans to continue its focus on Directory and Tracker products. Future investment will be directed towards features their users believe require enhancement. The company sees this as a never ending process – we think this is akin to ongoing consulting and education on top of a productivity toolset.